Joint conference committee may add ANWR provision to energy bill

Steve Sutherlin

The energy bill continued to occupy the Senate the week of March 11 but an amendment to allow oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge may be delayed until the Senate’s Easter break is over.

As lawmakers entered a second week of consideration of energy legislation considered by many to be vital to the security of the nation, discussions of fuel-efficiency standards for cars — known as corporate average fuel economy standards — are expected to occupy the balance of the week, a spokesman for pro-ANWR development group Arctic Power told PNA. Observers widely expected Sen. Frank Murkowski to add an amendment to allow ANWR development midweek the week of March 11, but it now appears the CAFE standards debate will delay introduction of the ANWR amendment.

Predicting the activities of the Senate is an inexact art, the spokesman said, but current intelligence suggests that Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle will bring up campaign finance reform the week of March 18, putting energy discussions on hold. If Daschle does so, ANWR discussions could be bumped well into April because the Senate will begin its Easter recess at the end of the week and won’t return to the capital until April 9.

“The chances of a significant move soon for ANWR are very small,” the spokesman said.

In addition to CAFE standards and ANWR, the Senate must also address electricity policy, which is expected to take about four days, and also energy taxation, a $15 billion question, before the bill leaves the Senate.

A Senate energy bill with an ANWR development provision is the best-case scenario, but if the Senate passes an energy bill without a provision for ANWR development, the issue is “alive and well,” the spokesman said. A final energy bill will be crafted in joint conference committee using the Senate bill and a House-passed bill that includes a provision for ANWR development.

The conference committee is influenced by the administration, which is staunchly pro-ANWR development, according to the spokesman.

“White House influences on conference are targeted and extreme,” he said.

The Senate Democrats can filibuster an ANWR amendment at this point in the game because pro-drilling interests have only 54 votes: It takes 60 votes to break a filibuster. But drilling advocates say a floor vote on the popular energy bill once it comes out of conference committee is likely to get passed even with an ANWR amendment.

Knowles pushes ANWR

The letter said America’s domestic oil supply is decreasing; ANWR development has the potential to create up to 735,000 jobs nationwide; the “footprint” of oil development will use less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the refuge; the Central Arctic caribou herd near Prudhoe Bay has increased in population by over 200 percent since the 1970s, and that the Inupiat living in the area are among the strongest supporters of development.

“Some would like to force a trade-off between development in the Arctic Refuge and construction of the Alaska Highway natural gas pipeline, but America sorely needs the oil and gas from both projects and this administration will not tolerate any attempt to trade off one for the other,” Knowles said.